Lagging music sales makes perfect sense to me. The quality is gone. There was a day you could buy a CD and have 10 good songs. Recently CDs have two songs worth listening to, the rest filler. To ask me to pay $17 for this is crazy. What's worse is the single song that costs you $8.

Another major issue is the lack of variety with music. Personal taste aside, the diversity of music has taken a beating. Everybody has been banking on a few megastars to make them money, and those megastars are worn out. The latest Mariah Carey sounds like the last two, the latest Britney sounds like her last three, and the same as eight other single 18-year-old girls. This formula worked when it was new. When 'N Sync was new, and the sound was unique it works. Forty songs of the same thing later, people are bored with it. Three artists shouldn't be relied upon to make 80 percent of your profits.

Radio stations play the same tiny set of songs all day long. On the rare occasion MTV actually shows a video, it's the same one they showed yesterday. How many videos are made that never get shown? How many artists never make it on the radio?

This is not a crisis, but a wake-up call. This is the consumer's power. The power not to buy.

-- Tony Kovschak

How could you not mention Radiohead in your summation that the music biz is in trouble? In covering CD sales, you failed to mention their last album, "Kid A," premiered at No. 1 in late 2000 and their latest album, "Amnesiac," premiered at No. 2 -- despite selling more first-week units than "Kid A"! (Staind's album - whom you did mention - kept them from No. 1.)

Then, when covering slipping concert ticket sales, you fail to mention that their wildly successful and critically lauded current U.S. tour is not only putting on great shows -- but is sold out!

Was Radiohead not mentioned because it goes against the article (although you mentioned others that went against the main thought of the article) or simply as an oversight? The latter would be a shame of an excuse for someone writing as an expert in the "music biz."

-- (Name Withdrawn)

God Bless Eric Boehlert. His tenacity in pursuing the havoc being wreaked on American popular music by Clear Channel Communications should earn him a Pulitzer (or the online equivalent). Who isn't tired of hearing the same cruddy music on the radio? Who isn't fed up with the fascism of attending shows at these so-called festival arenas. Who isn't sick of hack musicians who are stars thanks only to constant airplay at company-owned stations?

I am a 43-year-old woman who still enjoys the thrill of listening to good tunes on the radio. When I am fortunate enough to be in an area with an independent station it is pure bliss to be surprised by the potpourri of musical offerings sent my way by quality, knowledgeable deejays. I don't mind hearing the Backstreet Boys now and again, but I also want to hear Lucinda Williams, Old '97s, Wilco, India Arie and a slew of other great musicians who never get airplay.

I'm just waiting for the next technological advance so I can pick up radio stations via the Internet in my car so I never have to listen to a predictable narrowcast station again.

As far as attending any shows at an SFX venue, I'm not a big enough sucker to pony up for an already overpriced ticket, incur the ever-increasing service charges and then suffer the indignity of $4.50 bottled water. I was at the Paul Simon/Brian Wilson show (comp ticket), which by the way was great, and the security force actually made the woman in front of me hand over her pack of Mentos because "you can't bring candy in to the concert."

Music used to be so much fun; thanks to Clear Channel and its subsidiaries much of the joy has been diffused. At least there are still lots of wonderful artists and club owners that know how to do music right. And there are still college radio stations. Great music can be found, it just takes a whole lot more effort.

-- Molly Reynolds